Includes bibliographical references and index.

Sociologists often work with research questions and data that are 'relational' in nature. This means that they are not primarily concerned with individual actors, but with the relationships between actors. Social network analysis (SNA) is a method that takes the 'connections' or 'ties' between actors as the focus of analysis, and assumes that the structure and patterning of relationships matters for what individuals think and do. While SNA can have a strong quantitative focus, this data exemplar will illustrate ways in which you might analyse network data qualitatively (QSNA). The data used is provided by Dr Gemma Edwards from the University of Manchester, and is taken from research she conducted on the personal social networks of suffragettes. The aim of this research was to explore how ordinary women at the turn of the twentieth century became involved in the militant campaign for 'Votes for Women' in Britain. The focus was on their interpersonal relationships, considering that we know from existing studies of social movements that 'networks matter' for participation (Passy, 2003). The analysis focuses on two suffragettes who were members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU): Helen Watts (from Nottingham) and Mary Blathwayt (from Bath). Gemma analyses how their interpersonal relationships shaped their choices around activism. The data provided relates to Helen Watts specifically, and comprises a sample of letters surrounding her activism in 1909, and visualisations of her social network. The exemplar will help you to think about how visualisations and qualitative data from historical archives can be used in dialogue to analyse social networks qualitatively.

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